The Snowball Effect

by Holly Nicole Hoxter

  “That’s exactly what I said, but apparently it’s in there pretty good. The teacher thinks that only a dedicated team of the best surgeons at Johns Hopkins will be able to remove it.”

  “Lainey, I am not laughing. But I’m glad you think this situation is amusing, because you are going to take him.”

  “Uh, no, I’m not.”

  Vallery groaned. “If it’s not urgent enough that they need to rush him to the hospital themselves, then I don’t think it’s urgent enough that either of us should miss work to get him early.”

  “If you tell your boss that Collin needs to see a doctor, then he has to understand.”

  “Lainey, I just took off to take him to the doctor!”

  “No you didn’t! That was a lie!”

  “It really doesn’t matter at this point. Look, there are two reasons why you’re going to be the one to deal with this. First, they called you, not me.”

  “Actually, they called Mom first. Should we just wait to see if she’s going to get him?”

  Vallery sighed. “My second reason is that you pick him up anyway. This really has nothing to do with me.”

  “Vallery, I can’t leave! If you leave, you have other people there to cover for you. I have no one. I can’t leave here for another hour.”

  “Then wait an hour. I don’t know what to tell you.”

  “Oh my God. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

  “I don’t have a choice. If I keep missing time, they’re going to fire me. It’s still my probationary period. And if I get fired, are you going to—”

  “Okay, fine. I’ll take care of it.” I slammed the phone down.

  I looked at the schedule under the register. Yasmin worked the afternoon shift. Yasmin was cool—she wouldn’t rat on me if I had to leave early. To go to the hospital.

  I had to go, right? It had to hurt.

  I walked over to Rodney’s kiosk. “I have to go pick him up,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “I’ll watch your stuff,” he said.

  I looked at my watch. “It’s a whole hour.”

  “It’ll be okay. I’ll cover for you.”

  “Thanks, Rodney.”

  I made sure the keys were inside the desk drawer, and then I walked off. The handbag kiosk girl smiled when she saw me coming.

  “Thirty percent off!” she said. “Today only!”

  I held my purse up to show her that I didn’t need a freaking handbag.

  “Take a coupon,” she called after me. “And come back later?”

  I kept walking.

  “Does it hurt?” I asked as we sat there waiting. Collin shook his head and accidentally whacked the crayon against the chair. His little lips quivered like he wanted to cry.

  I’d taken him to the urgent-care center, which handled stuff like crayons in the ear, but not anything major like broken bones or heart attacks or profuse bleeding. The closest real hospital was in the city, and I didn’t exactly know how to get there. The urgent-care center would be good enough, though. And probably cheaper, since that’s where the poor and homeless people went.

  “Jeez, Collin, why would you do that to yourself? Why would you want to stick a crayon in your ear?”

  “I didn’t!”

  “You didn’t?”

  “No!”

  “Collin, I know you’re lying. There’s a crayon sticking out of your head. Right now.”

  “Zach did it!”

  “Zach stuck the crayon in your ear?”

  “No!”

  “Okay then.”

  “Zach made me!”

  “He made you.”

  Collin nodded.

  “Is that the truth? Remember, God is watching.”

  I couldn’t believe I’d just said that. Sometimes when I dealt with Collin, it was like my mother had temporarily possessed my body and I had no control over the things that came out of my mouth.

  “Zach made me do it!”

  If you spent enough time listening to Collin’s lies, you could detect a slight difference in the way he spoke when he was actually telling the truth, or at least thought that he was. And for some reason, I believed him then. I didn’t know why this Zach kid would make him stick a crayon in his ear, but I believed that it had happened.

  “All right,” I said. “I believe you.”

  He dropped his head. “Mrs. Young didn’t.”

  “People aren’t always going to believe what you say even when you’re telling the truth.”

  “Not fair.”

  I put my arm around Collin, being careful not to bump the crayon. “I hate to break it to you, but life is never going to be fair.”

  The receptionist found some coloring books in the back and brought them out for Collin. I thought it was kind of funny, with the crayon in his ear and all. But no one else picked up on the irony, and I felt dumb for laughing. When Vallery showed up after work, Collin was lying on the floor under the chair, coloring.

  “I can’t wait to see how much we get billed for that,” she said as she crossed the waiting room and sat down beside me. “You know, his grandmother is cutting us off.”

  “What do you mean, cutting us off?”

  “She’s been giving us money every week for Collin.”

  “She has?”

  “Yes. But she’s super pissed about his birthday and she said she’s not cutting me any more checks. I guess she thinks we’re unfit parents.”

  “We are.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Are we going to be okay?”

  “Well, yeah, I guess. We have the Social Security money, but that’s hardly anything. If Mom and Carl had actually worked like normal people, we’d be getting a bigger check every month. My job is going to help a ton, but we’re still going to come up short.”

  “I can help out a little.”

  Vallery nodded. “Yeah, okay. I mean, I hate to take your money. But if you want to buy groceries or something, that’d help.”

  “I can find something full-time.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “How’s that ridiculous?”

  “You’re only eighteen. You should be out having fun. Not worrying about jobs and money and all that dumb stuff. Besides, I need you to help me at home. Maybe you can work more hours in the fall while Collin’s in school.”

  “I might be in school too.” I hadn’t thought about school in a while. I didn’t know what the plan was anymore.

  “Crap, I forgot about that. Well, I don’t want you to work any more than you have to. Especially if you’re going to school.”

  “Why do you care?”

  “I had to work my way through college, and I had to work in high school to help my dad with the bills. It’s not fun.”

  “I don’t think it’ll be fun. But we have to do what we have to do.”

  Vallery sighed and leaned back in her chair. She looked up toward the ceiling. “Thanks a ton, Mom.”

  The doctor pulled the crayon out with a pair of pliers, then shone a flashlight in Collin’s ear.

  “How’s it look?” Vallery asked. “Any waxy buildup?”

  The doctor glared at her. I clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. No one in this place had a sense of humor.

  “Everything looks fine,” the doctor said. He handed the crayon to me. On the way out, I handed it to Vallery. “Here. Send it back to camp with him tomorrow.”

  “Why didn’t they just pull it out with some pliers at school?” Vallery asked.

  “His teacher didn’t want to break it off in his ear and make it worse. Lawsuits and all that,” I said.

  As we crossed the parking lot, my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID. “It’s Rodney,” I said.

  “Is he the guy?” Vallery asked.

  “What guy?”

  She grabbed my arm where the ugly bruise had been. “The guy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “No.”

  Vallery took Collin with her in the Mustang. I got into the G
rand Am and answered the phone.

  “Katie’s going to squeal,” Rodney said.

  “Katie? I thought Yasmin worked on Wednesdays.”

  “Today’s Tuesday.”

  “Oh. Really?”

  “Yeah. She showed up half an hour early. I told her that you had stomach cramps and had to run to the bathroom. I made up this whole story about some bad Chinese you had last night. I told her I’d watch the kiosk until you got back, but she just stayed there and waited. When you never came back, she got really suspicious, and I’m pretty sure she’s going to tell Bob.”

  “Oh great,” I said. “This is very bad.” Abandoning your kiosk was about the worst thing you could do.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I probably should have just told her the truth, but I didn’t want her to know you weren’t even in the mall. I really thought she’d leave and come back when her shift started.”

  “That’s okay. It would have looked bad anyway.”

  As if the day couldn’t get any worse, Kara was waiting on the porch when we got home. She had a wrapped present on her lap.

  I sat in the Grand Am and watched as Vallery got out of the Mustang and unbuckled Collin.

  Crap. Kara had called four days ago, and I hadn’t even listened to her message. I pulled out my cell phone and called my voice mail.

  Collin ran up to Kara.

  Hey, Lainey, it’s Kara. Christine and Wallace were just here, and they asked me what I’d gotten Collin for his birthday.

  Kara handed the present to Collin. He smiled.

  And I had to tell them that I hadn’t gotten him anything, because my best friend Lainey didn’t tell me about the party.

  Kara hugged Collin.

  Christine said, oh, she just sent out invitations. It probably got lost in the mail.

  Vallery took Collin’s hand. They walked inside the house.

  So anyway, give me a call if my invitation got lost in the mail. Okay? Love you. Bye.

  I hung up and got out of the car. Kara walked down the porch steps.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  Kara shrugged. “Home.”

  We stopped in the middle of the yard. Kara looked away from me.

  “I just got your message. I’m sorry.”

  She shrugged. “Right. It’s okay.”

  “It was really nice of you to get Collin a present anyway.”

  “Yeah. I would have brought it earlier, but it took me a while to convince myself that being mad at you wasn’t a good reason to ignore the kid’s birthday.”

  “I would have sent you an invitation, but I didn’t think you’d want to go.”

  “You invited Christine.”

  “Come on, Kara, don’t do this. I had one invitation left, and Christine’s pregnant and into the whole kid thing, so I thought it’d matter more to her. You know? I really didn’t think you’d care.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I have known the kid forever, and I do care about his birthday.”

  “I know you do. And it’s really not like that. I’m sorry.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m glad you came over.”

  “Right,” she said.

  I sighed. “Can we go somewhere?”

  She didn’t answer, but I yelled into the house and told Vallery that Kara and I were going out for dinner. We ended up at the McDonald’s because Kara wouldn’t tell me where she wanted to go and it was the first place I came to.

  Kara didn’t talk to me while we waited in line, and I wasn’t sure what to say. Finally, as we sat down with our chicken sandwiches, I apologized again. “Things have been crazy,” I explained.

  “What’s going on with Riley?”

  I shrugged. “Riley? Nothing.”

  “Christine said he seemed kind of mad at Collin’s party, and then he left early.”

  “Well, yeah, he had to leave early. I don’t know why Christine said he looked mad, though.”

  “Everything’s fine with Riley?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Just fine.”

  Kara put her sandwich down. “Lainey, I know you guys are still fighting. He called me and told me all about the party. He cried on the phone for like an hour.”

  “You know, we’re not fighting. We broke up.”

  “He told me you’re seeing some other guy, and that you had a hickey.”

  “It wasn’t a hickey. It was a bruise. On my arm.”

  “A hickey is a bruise.”

  I rolled my eyes. “So what if I’m seeing someone new? How is that his business?”

  Kara sighed. “It’s not Riley’s business, but I thought you might have told me about it.”

  “Oh.”

  “It’s just weird that your boyfriend—your ex-boyfriend—is telling me all this stuff about you, and I had no idea it was going on.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you’d want to hear about the new guy.”

  “Why wouldn’t I want to know about the new guy?”

  I shrugged. “You think I belong with Riley.”

  “You thought you belonged with Riley. That’s what you always used to say.”

  “Well, I guess I was wrong.”

  “So who is he?”

  “Nobody. Just a guy.”

  “Lainey.”

  “His name is Eric.”

  She threw a french fry at me and cracked a smile. “Very enlightening.”

  “Okay…he’s in sales right now. But he’s a ski instructor in PA during the winter. And he has his own place. He has a beard.”

  “And it’s going okay?”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, fine.”

  Kara nodded. “Okay.” She dipped a french fry in my ketchup. “So are things crazy with your brother, too?”

  “God, yes.” And so I told her about Collin’s birthday party, and about our trip to urgent care. By the time we left McDonald’s, I’d gotten her laughing.

  “Can I meet him?” she asked as we pulled up to my house.

  “Eric? Yeah, we’ll do something sometime.”

  “Okay. Call me.”

  We hugged on the sidewalk, and then Kara walked to her car and I went inside.

  The next morning Bob called and fired me. He said he’d send my last check in the mail.

  I hung up on him before he was finished talking and threw the cell phone across the room. I cried. I’d never been fired before. And I hadn’t even thought to defend myself. I’d had a perfectly good reason for leaving. It felt too late to call him back now, after I’d already hung up on him.

  After I started to feel really stupid about crying, I wiped my eyes and picked my cell phone up off of the floor. I scrolled to K but realized that Kara was probably asleep, so I scrolled down to R and then shook my head and wondered what was wrong with me. I scrolled back up to E and dialed Eric.

  “I got fired!” I whined into the phone.

  “Oh, honey! I’m sorry. I know how much you loved that job.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Well, do you want to go to work with me today?” he asked. “Frank’s on vacation.”

  “Um,” I said. “All right.”

  “Cool. I’ll pick you up in a few minutes.”

  I dressed in a red button-up shirt and black skirt and heels. I hadn’t worn the shirt in a while, and it was relatively clean. The skirt? Well, it didn’t have any visible stains, at least. My underwear, though, was brand-new. I’d finally run out of clean underwear, so I’d bought an economy variety pack of cotton briefs at Walmart. They would get me through the next few weeks.

  “Now, this job works on commission,” Eric explained in the car after he picked me up. “At the end of the day we’ll split everything evenly, all right?”

  “All right,” I said.

  “I figure you’ll help me win over the male demographic. My biggest customers so far have been old ladies, because old ladies love me. Anyone younger than forty-five thinks my beard is creepy, but the old ladies dig it.”

  “I’m under forty-five,” I sai
d.

  “And what do you think about my beard?”

  I shrugged and smiled.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Annapolis.”

  “Annapolis?”

  “Yeah. Frank and I already hit all the streets in Corben.”

  “Really. All of them?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then I guess it wasn’t such a coincidence that we met again. It was just a matter of time.”

  “Nah, fate still had something to do with it. Would you have gotten out of bed to answer the door if Vallery hadn’t stayed home from work?”

  I shook my head. Absolutely not.

  The houses in the Annapolis suburbs weren’t that close together, so we did a lot of walking. Most people either weren’t home or didn’t answer the door. They were probably at work, which made sense. If you lived in a big brick house in a suburb of Annapolis, you probably needed a normal nine-to-five job to pay the bills, and that prevented you from being home in the middle of the day to answer the door for a couple of kids selling magazines.

  After four hours of going door-to-door, I realized that selling was hard. Door-to-door salesmen aroused even more contempt than kiosk cashiers. But some people were receptive to our pitch (or to our charming good looks). We made a bit of money and decided to go out to lunch.

  The burger place Eric picked out had peanut shells all over the floor. “This place is filthy,” I said to Eric, kicking at the shells with my black heels.

  “The food’s good, though,” he assured me.

  “No, I like it,” I said. “It makes me feel at home.”

  He rolled his eyes at me. “I can never tell when you’re being facetious.”

  After we were seated and the waitress gave us a bowl of peanuts and went off to get our drinks, we stared at the menus and I thought about getting fired. I knew it was just a stupid mall job, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it and wondering what I should have done differently.

  “I should have just waited,” I said to Eric. “He wasn’t even in pain. And then we sat in the waiting room for half the night anyway.”

  “Your brother needed you,” Eric said, cracking open a peanut. “Why don’t you call Bob and explain?”